Application of Exponential Smoothing to Machining Precision of Nickel-Based Superalloy Waspaloy
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Sensors and Materials, Vol. 32, No. 3 (2020) 819–831 819 MYU Tokyo S & M 2140 Application of Exponential Smoothing to Machining Precision of Nickel-based Superalloy Waspaloy Shao-Hsien Chen1* and Yu-Lun Ho2 1The Graduate Institute of Precision Manufacturing, National Chin-Yi University of Technology, No. 57, Sec. 2, Zhongshan Rd., Taiping Dist., Taichung 41170, Taiwan (R.O.C.) 2Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Chin-Yi University of Technology, No. 57, Sec. 2, Zhongshan Rd., Taiping Dist., Taichung 41170, Taiwan (R.O.C.) (Received February 20, 2019; accepted February 26, 2020) Keywords: exponential smoothing, Waspaloy, nickel-based, superalloy, tool wear Nickel-based materials are widely used in engines, housings, and compressor rotors. They are also used in other industries, such as energy, petrochemicals, and tool and die making. Nickel-based alloys have a high tolerance to high temperatures and superior anti-corrosion characteristics while maintaining good mechanical properties. Owing to the development of precision casting technology in the late 1950s, a series of highly intensive cast nickel-based superalloys with these properties have been developed. With the rapid changes in the military and civil space industries in recent years, the use of nickel-based superalloys is increasing. In this study, we mainly use Waspaloy as a nickel-based material to study cutting; we use regression analysis to find the significant factors affecting cutting force and surface accuracy and then perform an optimization experiment. A TiAlN-coated tool is mainly used in the study of cutting. We conclude that the significant factors affecting the cutting force among the experimental conditions are the cutting depth and feed rate per tooth and that the significant factors affecting the surface accuracy are the feed rate per tooth and cutting speed. When the cutting depth dp increases from 0.1 to 0.3 mm, the tool wear increases by 94.1%, and when the cutting speed Vc increases from 30 to 40 m/min, the tool wear decreases by 2.17%. 1. Introduction Waspaloy has high tensile strength, fatigue durability, creep strength, and corrosion stability, as well as outstanding weldability and tenacity in high-temperature work environments, so it is often used in environments where high-temperature resistance and load are required. This superalloy is a hard-to-cut material in machining for the following reasons.(1–6) (1) Work hardenability: boundary chipping and edge wear of the cutting clearance increase over time, the cuttings are tough and difficult to break off, and case hardening occurs.(7,8) (2) Low thermal conductivity: although general steel can generate cutting heat when being cut, most of the heat is carried away by the cuttings; however, as Waspaloy has low thermal conductivity, it readily accumulates the cutting heat of the tool and machined part; moreover, *Corresponding author: e-mail: [email protected] https://doi.org/10.18494/SAM.2020.2596 ISSN 0914-4935 © MYU K.K. https://myukk.org/ 820 Sensors and Materials, Vol. 32, No. 3 (2020) it has high yielding point, tensile strength, and cutting resistance, making it easy for the cutting edge to induce high pressure and temperature, and plastic deformation of the tool. (3) Affinity of the tool and superalloy: in discontinuous cutting, similarly to that observed in milling, the cutting edge and melt, and then the melt are embedded in the workpiece, generating a greater impact force and a cutting edge.(3,4) 2. Material Characteristics At present, vacuum induction melting technology is applied to most nickel-based materials. After that, extrusion molding is conducted to obtain Inconel-718 and Waspaloy, and then annealing is performed to homogenize the material with the aim of eliminating the segregation or bands of the crystal structure in the material; the crystal structure of the superalloy is an austenitic high-temperature stable face-centered cubic (fcc) structure. The phases of the crystal structure are shown in Table 1. Waspaloy is a precipitation-hardening nickel-based superalloy, in which the main precipitation hardening of the γ' phase differs from that of Inconel-718, and Ti and Al bond to form the γ' phase. In addition, Waspaloy contains carbon, boron, and zirconium, which are grain boundary strengthening elements. In the γ' phase, the precipitates of Ni3Al or Ni3Ti can strengthen the bonding of elements; the main source of strengthening in Waspaloy is γ' and the coherent precipitation hardening of the γ'' phase, where γ'' is the main strengthening phase, occurs.(3,4) Parameter control of the hot isostatic pressing process is used to distribute the γ'' phase evenly in large quantities, and the temperature rise in hot isostatic pressing is used to dissolve the δ phase so as to indirectly increase the number of precipitates in the strengthening phase and improve the mechanical strength of Waspaloy.(9,10) As can be seen from the time−temperature−transformation (TTT) diagram of the nickel- based superalloy in Fig. 1, the precipitation temperature in the δ phase is higher than that in the γ'' phase. Moreover, according to the long-time temperature variation, the δ and γ' phases have smaller contents than the γ'' phase. That is mainly because the γ' phase can develop the ability to resist creep deformation at high temperatures. The quantities of precipitates in the γ' phase depend mainly on the chemical components and temperature, as shown in Fig. 2. There are mainly an fcc lattice and randomly distributed solid solute atoms in the γ phase, and the original cubic lattice in the γ' phase, in which nickel atoms accumulate at the center and Al or Ti atoms are distributed in the corners, as shown in Fig. 3.(11–13) Table 1 Phases of Waspaloy. Waspaloy structure Form Type Primary phase γ: fcc matrix of Ni Secondary phases γ′: Ni3Al or Ni3Ti (fcc) γ′′: Ni3Nb (body-centered tetragonal, bct) δ: Ni3Nb (orthorhombic) Carbides MC, M23C6, M6C, and M7C3 Sensors and Materials, Vol. 32, No. 3 (2020) 821 Fig. 1. TTT diagram of the nickel-based superalloy.(11,12) Fig. 2. (Color online) Flow and fracture behavior in the grain boundaries of Waspaloy.(14) Fig. 3. Ni-Al-Ti ternary phase diagrams showing the γ and γ′ phase fields.(11) Waspaloy is a superalloy that has been developed since 1946. The key metallurgical features of the superalloys Inconel-718 and Waspaloy are listed below: (1) solution strengthening elements, such as W, Mo, Co, Cr, and V, produce local lattice strain in the Ni-Fe base to strengthen materials as the radii of these atoms are different from those of the atoms of the base 822 Sensors and Materials, Vol. 32, No. 3 (2020) material; (2) precipitation hardening elements, such as Al, Ti, Nb, and Ta, can form coherent A3B intermetallic compounds, such as Ni3(Al,Ti) and other strengthening phases (γ'), to strengthen the alloy effectively and obtain high-temperature strength greater than that of iron- based superalloys and cobalt-based alloys; (3) grain boundary strengthening elements, such as B, Zr, Mg, and rare-earth elements, can increase the high-temperature strength of the alloy. Table 2 shows the components of Waspaloy and Inconel-718, where the former is a standard nickel- based material with typical properties such as precipitation hardening, high material affinity, and low heat transfer coefficient.(11,12) 3. Research Principles and Methods 3.1 Cutting principle In addition to the computer numerical control (CNC) machine tool, tools, fixture, and jig, the surface finish and processing efficiency of milled parts also depend on the cutting conditions and parameters such as the cutting speed, feed rate, cutting depth, and cutting width. Different cutting conditions produce different results, affecting the available lifetime of the tool as well as the processing quality.(20) The cutting speed, feed rate, cutting depth, and cutting width are usually all set by CNC programming. The cutting speed has the greatest effect on the surface finish and efficiency (Fig. 4). Table 2 Chemical compositions of Waspaloy and Inconel-718. Cr Ni Co Mo W Ti Al Fe C Nb Other Inconel-718 18 B 0 2.8 0 1 0.5 18 0.025 5.4 — Waspaloy 19.4 B 13 4.3 0 3 1.5 2Max 0.035 0 — Fig. 4. (Color online) Diagram of cutting parameters. Sensors and Materials, Vol. 32, No. 3 (2020) 823 The following equation gives the cutting speed Vc in terms of the tool diameter D and spindle rotation speed N. π ××DN V = . (1) c 1000 The feed rate F refers to how fast a milling tool moves through the material being cut. This is calculated using the feed per tooth Fz to give the distance in millimeters per minute that a milling bit can move through a particular material as follows: F = N × T × Ft, (2) where N is the spindle rotation speed and T is the number of teeth. Ideal surface roughness is a function of only the tool feed per tooth and geometry. It represents the best possible finish that can be obtained for the given tool shape and feed per tooth. It can be shown that the surface roughness of a workpiece is closely related to the feed and corner radius as follows, where Rmax is the height of the profile and R is the radius of the rounded corner of the cutting tool (Fig. 5): Ft 3 Rmax = ×10 , (3) RZ 8± Fz π which simplifies to F R =t ×103 . (4) max 8r 3.2 Exponential smoothing principle Exponential smoothing is a particular type of moving average technique applied to time series data, which are used to make forecasts. When the trend of a time series is a linear curve, single exponential smoothing is used for analysis and forecasting, and when the trend is Fig.